Navy Grog, NYT

A dark rum distilled in Guyana, with a more heavy bodied molasses flavor and darker color. This is a rare variety of rum, if a recipe calls for demerara rum it may only be referring to a dark colored rum, not specifically a Guyanan rum.

A sub-set of dark, molasses-driven rums. These rums are very dark in color from added refined sugar (molasses), multiple distillation, and likely, but not always, aging in charred oak. There is no formal definition of black rum, if a recipe calls for this type of rum, it is usually refering to a very very darkly colored rum; a common example is Gosling's Black Seal. Pair it with lemon, lime, ginger and pineapple.

Also referred to as silver or white, light rums are unaged, aged in steel, or aged in oak and have had their color filtered out, and usually have a sweeter and lighter taste than darker rum varieties. The name refers to these rums lighter or clear color.

The second most common juice used in cocktails. This citrus juice is about 6% acid; 4% from citric and 2% from malic, with small amounts of succinic acid (this is what gives it a little bloody taste). Lime juice should be used the day it is squeezed, some like it freshly squeezed and others like it a few hours old.

A juice used in some cocktails for its tart and acidic properties. Grapefruit juice can be pre-squeezed and kept fresh for many days like orange juice, unlike lemon and lime juice.

A syrup produced by bees (apis). Pure honey is 82% sugar and very viscous, if you add 64g water to every 100g honey you can make a thinner honey syrup that will substitute (with respect to sweetness) for simple syrup in any recipe, equivalent to 1.1:1 honey to water by volume. We try to always use 1:1 syrups by mass. However, most sources measure honey syrups by volume, this tends to make comparing recipes across sources that use honey syrups complicated, we tried to state what the original source uses in the recipe text. If no extra information is given, assume the syrup to be 1:1 by volume (eq ~1.4:1 by mass). Proteins in natural honey provide structure to bubbles in shaken drinks.

Water into which carbon dioxide gas under pressure has been dissolved, creating a fizzy texture. We treat soda water, club soda, seltzer and sparkling water the same.

An orange colored citrus fruit. Many types of orange make an appearance in cocktails. The peel and juice are equally valuable to diverse cocktails.

In cocktails, cherries are sweetened in a brine, like maraschino cherries (marr-ə-SKEE-noh) or in brandy, like brandied cherries. They are usually used as a garnish, muddled into the cocktail, or used simple for their sweetened brine.